Brain-computer interface devices (also called BCI devices) allow monitoring activity (electrical, thermal, or fluid, for example) in the human brain to directly control or transmit data to computers and associated electronic devices. There are two types of BCI devices: invasive or noninvasive. Noninvasive BCI devices are most often made up of electrodes placed on the patient's head to follow his or her cerebral activity. Although positioning of these devices was simple, the monitoring of cerebral activity was not optimal, primarily due to the distance separating the electrodes from the brain itself, and the obstacle created by the skin and sometimes the muscle, which can interfere with the signal quality. This is why invasive BCI devices have been developed, so that the activity can be measured closest to the areas of interest.
However, the development of electrical equipment to be installed inside the patient's body to alleviate a defect in a natural organ, such as for example brain-computer interfaces, as well as neuro-prostheses or even functional electrical stimulation, rely on the ability to transmit either the energy or the electrical signals required by this equipment from an energy or information source located outside the body toward the inside of the body, or for collecting information such as electrical signals originating from the defective natural organ and/or electrical equipment adapted to alleviate these defects.
The general objective of the present invention is therefore to offer a device that contributes to resolving the problems outlined above.
One aim of the present invention in particular is to propose a novel device permitting permanent integration of one or more interface devices as close as possible to the organs to be monitored and/or the corresponding electrical equipment implanted in the body.
Another aim of the present invention is to propose a device offering the possibility of housing an interface device serving as a relay and connecting the inside and the outside of a living organism.
Still another aim of the invention is to propose an innovative implantation method designed for the particular specific structure of the proposed bone-anchored housing-interface device.